LiMandri's current gig is helping developers

From Crains:

The former head of the Department of Buildings is aiming to help developers adapt to the city’s new building codes, which were implemented late last year.

Robert LiMandri, who ran the city's Department of Buildings for five years before joining architecture firm Vidaris last year, has established a new division within Vidaris that will focus on assisting developers clear the requirements.

Mr. LiMandri said the codes have created an extra hurdle for builders at a time when construction is booming and the Department of Buildings is backlogged with projects waiting for approval.

“There’s confusion about the changes,” Mr. LiMandri said. “It has become a lot more stringent.”

A big element of the new codes include making buildings safer, but these changes have had a direct influence on design. Developers constructing glassy high-end residential towers, for instance, have to design and install enhanced fire-protection systems to compensate for the bigger window lines, which can feed a blaze. Additionally, emergency elevators, which are used to evacuate a building in the event of a fire, require a special design that will properly ventilate smoke.

“More and more, builders are looking for experts to help them vet their designs” before handing them to the Buildings Department, Mr. LiMandri said.

Making sure that projects are approved expeditiously has become a major concern for developers, given the rising costs of land, building materials and labor. There is mounting pressure to quickly get through the construction process in order to alleviate carrying costs. Developers also want to complete their projects while the real estate market is still hot.

DOB now cracking down on shady real estate agents and brokers

From the NY Times:

The Department of Buildings has begun issuing fines to agents and brokers who advertise and show illegal apartments for rent, a new step in a long battle that has traditionally taken on owners of illegal dwellings. The fines, which have been issued to the agents and the companies they work for, begin at $3,600 and can go up to five times that amount.

“They are the people in the middle in many cases, the licensed salesperson and the broker,” said the buildings commissioner, Robert D. LiMandri. “They are the enabler. We have to hold them accountable, too.”

From January to March, inspectors combed through listing Web sites like craigslist, and then, posing as curious potential renters, went to see 50 apartments they considered suspicious. (Telltale signs of an apartment without the proper certificate of occupancy might be a listing that says all utilities are included, for example.)

The department issued fines to 10 agents, including agents at Douglas Elliman and Halstead Property, for listing apartments in a variety of neighborhoods and boroughs, including Park Slope and Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, and Hamilton Heights in Upper Manhattan. All of the apartments were in the basement or the cellar, and most did not have the required two means of egress, the department said. The department says the building code gives it the right to issue fines to agents; in the future, it may go after brokers who supervise the agents as well.

Spokesmen for Douglas Elliman and Halstead Property declined to comment.

This investigation, which the department theatrically calls, “Operation: Danger Included,” is not its first foray into undercover work. In 2010, it began a similar sting operation, looking for illegal apartments and fining the landlords. The crackdown continued last month as a landlord in Queens was charged with reckless endangerment for cramming nearly 50 people into converted apartments, including in garages and cellars.

“Frankly, illegal conversions can kill you,” Mr. LiMandri said. “It’s very simple to go on our Web site and figure out if it’s an illegal apartment or not.”

Fraudulent Astoria landlord busted

From the Queens Gazette:

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, joined by New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, New York City Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn and New York City Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri, announced today that a Queens landlord who allegedly ignored an order to vacate his premises has been charged with taking tens of thousands of dollars from prospective tenants for uninhabitable apartments and in one particularly egregious case renting out the same apartment to four different tenants for the same time period.

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Hinyoung Limtung, 55, of 31-70 Crescent Street, in Astoria, Queens. The defendant was arrested today and is presently awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on a criminal complaint charging him with first-degree scheme to defraud, third-degree grand larceny and second-, third- and fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property. If convicted, Limtung faces up to 15 years in prison.

District Attorney Brown said that the matter was brought to the attention of his office by several of the tenants at 31-70 Crescent Street – a property owned by the defendant – complaining about the alleged egregious conditions at their building. The District Attorney’s Office commenced an investigation with the New York City Police Department and thereafter learned that the City’s Department of Buildings and Department of Investigation were conducting a simultaneous probe. The two investigations were then joined.

In December 2012, the Department of Buildings issued a vacate order to the defendant after determining that the two-family building had been converted into a five-family building with no permit or certificate of occupancy issued for the conversion, that the first and second floor had no secondary means of egress, and that the building had no sprinkler system. Upon returning to the premises on February 19, 2013, the DOB investigator discovered that the property had been converted into a nine-family dwelling despite the existing vacate order and that there were multiple individuals allegedly living at the premises in violation of the vacate order.

Landlord arrested for illegal conversions

From the NY Times:

A Queens landlord who authorities said had packed nearly 50 people in illegally converted apartments, some in garages and cellars, was charged with reckless endangerment and other crimes on Wednesday, reflecting a growing concern about the kind of overcrowded housing that has been cited in several fatal fires in recent years.

The landlord, Segundo Chimbay, 48, was accused of turning four houses in Jackson Heights and Elmhurst into fire hazards, with subdivided apartments, illegally installed utilities and rooms without required exits, according to Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney.

In the absence of any fire or other disaster in the buildings, Mr. Chimbay’s arrest indicated an increased enforcement of laws banning illegal conversions by the district attorney’s office and other city agencies.

“This property owner sacrificed public safety for his own profit,” said Robert LiMandri, the commissioner of the Buildings Department, in an e-mailed statement. “And his arrest demonstrates that there are serious consequences for creating such dangerous living conditions in New York City.”

Mr. Chimbay, who charged rents from $850 to $1,400 for the illegal dwellings, had been under scrutiny by the Buildings Department since about 2007, when he refused orders to vacate his buildings or bring them up to code, according to the district attorney’s office. There are dozens of violations attached to his name on the Buildings Department’s Web site, including a citation for turning one two-bedroom home into apartments for 13 families.

So it takes 6 years to arrest someone for this? What a joke.

Hurricane collapse happened at illegal hotel

From the Daily News:

A building that crumbled onto a Manhattan sidewalk as Hurricane Sandy bore down on the city was an illegal hotel full of European tourists, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn charges.

In a letter sent to the Buildings Department this week, Quinn asks for a full inspection of the building and demands that the property return to residential use.

“As someone who was on site during the vacate process I can attest to the fact that the users of the buildings were transient guests and not permanent residents,” the mayoral wannabe wrote.

Quinn and other Council members have railed for years about the proliferation of illegal hotels. Landlords make a fortune renting out rooms on a nightly basis that are supposed to rent by the month.

The city loses hotel tax income and neighbors have to deal with a revolving door of transients. Some landlords also create fire hazards by illegally partitioning rooms to make more money.

The illegal rooms at 92 8th Ave. were even advertised through a website called Vrotels.com, which specializes in renting furnished rooms for short-term stays, Quinn wrote.

Quinn’s letter asks Building Commissioner Robert LiMandri to conduct “an extensive audit” of all construction plans and a review of current conditions. Buildings Department spokesman Tony Sclafani said the city will keep careful watch.

City inspectors hit the building with violations on multiple occasions from 2011 to 2012 for work without a permit and for blocking an exit, records show. The property owner currently owes $30,800 in penalties.

Lifting a load too heavy

From NBC:

A crane collapse in Queens Wednesday is being attributed to error on the part of the crane operator, officials say.

The crane collapsed at a construction site at 46-10 Center Blvd. in Long Island City Wednesday afternoon, behind the famed neon Pepsi-Cola sign, injuring seven people, including three construction workers who had to be extricated.

Buildings Department Commissioner Robert Limandri said it appears the crane operator attempted to lift a load of 23,900 pounds on the crane, more than double the weight capacity for the crane.

Limandri said the operator was unable to see the load being lifted and he was apparently trying to lift the materials outside the approved loading zone.

The operator's license has been suspended, Limandri said. A stop work order for crane operations at the construction site remains in effect while the investigation continues.

QCC wants City to stop violations for fallen trees

From the Daily News:

Queens civic leaders and homeowners are furious with city officials for allowing inspectors to slap them with violations just days after Superstorm Sandy sent trees crashing into their homes.

Now they are asking the Buildings Department to remove those violations from their property records and come up with a new way of contacting them in the wake of storms.

The West Cunningham Park Civic Association contacted state Sen. Tony Avella and City Councilman Mark Weprin in an effort to get the city to listen to homeowners’ pleas.
“This is one more example of the insensitivity sometimes of the city,” said Avella (D-Bayside). “They really need to retract these violations.”

The Queens Civic Congress fired off a letter to Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri asking him to change the system.

They want the agency to send letters to each person who received a violation to document it was storm-related.

Buildings Department officials did not respond to that request and urged homeowners with questions to call 311.

Behold the Sea Box

From the NY Observer:

For the past five years, the Bloomberg administration has been quietly developing a first-of-its-kind disaster housing program, creating modular apartments uniquely designed for the challenges of urban living. Carved out of shipping containers, these LEGO-like, stackable apartments offer all the amenities of home. Or more, since they are bigger, and brighter, than the typical Manhattan studio. It’s the FEMA trailer of the future, built with the Dwell reader in mind.

“It’s nicer than my apartment,” David Burney, commissioner of the Department of Design and Construction, said in a phone interview last week. Along with the city’s Office of Emergency Management and at least a dozen other city, state and federal agencies and private contractors, Mr. Burney has been trying to figure out how best to house the tens or even hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who could find themselves without a home following a major disaster.

Like Hurricane Sandy. Initial estimates of those forced into long-term homelessness—from months to years—are 20,000 in the five boroughs alone. Over the weekend, Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri told the Times that at least 400 homes would have to be demolished along the coast, with 500 more still to be evaluated.

“There’s nobody who wouldn’t like to see a deployable solution available now,” said Lance Jay Brown, an architecture professor at CUNY who has been advising the city on its plans. “But nobody has this, nobody. I think the Japanese are working on something, given all they’ve gone through, but I can tell you, New York is really ahead of the curve when it comes to long-term disaster housing.”

Now that's compassion for you

From DNA Info:

The city’s Department of Buildings has slapped violations on homeowners of condemned homes in Breezy Point that were destroyed during Hurricane Sandy, DNAinfo.com New York has learned.

Dozens of already shell-shocked homeowners trying to deal with the aftermath of the storm found tickets nailed to their crushed homes this week.

One violation cited “failure to maintain” the building, and the ticket's wording threatened “criminal prosecution” if the problem was not “immediately corrected.”

“It was shocking,” one homeowner said after finding the summons taped to a mangled storm door Friday.

“Here I am dealing with a house that's off its foundation, it is condemned, and I finally found a contractor with a bulldozer to push it to the curb so that it can be taken away by FEMA,” said the owner, who requested anonymity.

“And just as I am about to watch my house be carted away on the back of a trailer by FEMA forever, the contractor sees a white piece of paper tacked to it."

A spokesman for the Buildings Department told DNAinfo.com that the notices were simply a formality of the process, not intended as a notice of civil action.

"These violations were issued to document the damage that occurred and do not carry any monetary penalties for the property owner," said department spokesman Tony Sclafani.
Still, that offered little consolation for the homeowners left with nothing, after their homes were torn down, but the words on that piece of paper.

“I did not know what it was, and then I stood in the street, watching my house being taken away, and I am reading the paper and it is a summons for a building violation,” said the homeowner.

“What are they smoking down there?” he wondered about the Buildings workers.

The remedy, it says, is “Obtain all necessary permits for demo/repairs.”

Will fee for the permits be waived, at least?

From the NY Times:

New York City is moving to demolish hundreds of homes in the neighborhoods hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy, after a grim assessment of the storm-ravaged coast revealed that many structures were so damaged they pose a danger to public safety and other buildings nearby.

About 200 homes will be bulldozed in the coming days, almost all of them one- and two-family houses on Staten Island, in Queens and Brooklyn. That is in addition to 200 houses that are already partially or completely burned down, washed away or otherwise damaged; those sites will also be cleared.

The Buildings Department is still inspecting nearly 500 other damaged structures, some of which could also be razed, according to the commissioner, Robert L. LiMandri.

One challenge facing the department is reaching owners of the homes facing demolition. Many are now living elsewhere — with friends or family or in hotels or shelters — and are barred from entering the houses because they are unsafe.

The city is trying to proceed with sensitivity, with Buildings Department staff members walking the streets in these neighborhoods, trying to track down those affected through their friends and neighbors and urging them to go to one of the six recovery centers set up by the city and to register their damaged homes by calling 311.

But, in some cases, where the danger is imminent, the department will issue an emergency declaration to bulldoze the buildings, even if the owners have not been contacted.

“This is not easy, in this case, because of all these displaced people, but we’re going to do the best we can, but we may have to move on it if we can’t find them,” Mr. LiMandri said.

Another avoidable death at construction site

From WPIX:

Investigators are focusing on a delivery of cinderblocks as being the cause of a steel roof collapse at a Fort Greene construction site.

Officials say a 67 year old worker died, after falling 40 feet to basement. It happened around 9 this morning before work even started on the site.

"It was clear the floor the blocks were delivered on were not structurally stable and could not handle the load," said Department of Buildings commissioner, Robert LiMandari.

Officials say five workers were on the interior roof of the half built building when the blocks were delivered. Without warning, the roof caved in. Three workers jumped to an adjoining building. A second worker who fell to the basement is recovering from his injuries at Kings County hospital.

Watch your walls

From NY1:

Those who think it's easy and legal to put up a wall in an apartment to create another room are urged by the city building commissioner to think again. NY1's Real Estate reporter Jill Urban filed the following report.

All the time, listings describe a unit as a “convertible” three-bedroom or a “Junior 4.” These terms imply that one can add a bedroom by simply putting up a wall. But most people do not know there is nothing simple about it.

"When the broker says, 'No big deal, just put up a wall and you’ll have a three-bedroom,' it sounds really great. But when you get into that position sometimes, it's not all what it’s cracked up to be," says Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri.

What the broker may not be sharing is that those temporary pressurized walls are illegal. Putting up a permanent wall requires a permit.

"What you want to make sure is that it is built according to codes. Codes are there to protect you, the people around you and the first responders. And when people don’t do the right thing, innocent people can get hurt," says LiMandri.

Getting a permit is a multi-step process. LiMandri says first a licensed architect or engineer needs to be hired to draw up the plans and file them with the city to get the permit. That can be time-consuming and pricey.

Fire escape remover under investigation

From CBS 2:

New York City is launching an investigation into possible violations in dozens of buildings owned by the Bronx landlord who removed all the fire escapes from a University Heights apartment building.

Taking all the fire escapes from an apartment building is clearly a no-no, which could mean even more trouble for Goldfarb Properties.

Avella calls for LiMandri's resignation

From the Daily News:

A Queens lawmaker called on Thursday for the city buildings commissioner to step down, charging he has done little to clip the wings of notorious developer Tommy Huang.

State Sen. Tony Avella rallied with local leaders in Elmhurst at a construction site for one of Huang’s projects where a worker died last year when a wall collapsed.

The city has done little since then to curb Huang, they said, and called for

Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri to shape up or ship out.

“This is the perfect example of how the city has failed,” said Avella. “Here we have a notorious, unscrupulous developer who continues to develop illegally, create violations and cause damage to neighboring properties.”

Avella (D-Bayside) called on LiMandri to take action and adopt a policy similar to that of the state, which has barred Huang from selling condos and co-ops. Huang is still allowed to pursue other kinds of developments.

“If you can’t solve this issue, maybe you should step down and let someone else do it,” Avella said of LiMandri.

“In 30 years, not one project he’s undertaken has had a successful outcome,” said urban planner Paul Graziano.

Graziano suggested that Huang’s ties with City Controller John Liu could partially explain the city’s inaction. Alice Liu, Huang’s wife, is John Liu’s cousin.

Robert LiMandri: He cares!

From the Daily News:

Two years after a fatal fire at an illegally converted apartment in Queens, Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri said Wednesday that efforts to cut down on the dangerous housing “will live on.”

LiMandri, who will visit Woodside on Thursday to mark the anniversary of the blaze, vowed to keep educating renters and crack down on landlords who illegally subdivide spaces.

“From my perspective, we can always do more,” LiMandri told the Daily News. “I feel pretty committed to it.”

Yeah, ok.

Worker dies in Brooklyn building collapse

From NY1:

A construction worker died and four others were hospitalized after a building under construction collapsed in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn on Tuesday afternoon.

The five-story residential building located at 2929 Brighton Fifth Street was under construction when it collapsed just before 2:30 p.m.

The worker who died was at Coney Island Hospital.

Five other workers are now in Lutheran Hospital, including two in serious condition, two in stable condition and one who had refused medical attention at the scene.

Officials say workers were pouring concrete onto some metal sheeting called "Q-decking," when the third floor caved onto the second.

From the NY Times:

Robert LiMandri, commissioner of the Buildings Department, said workers were following an improper practice to pour the concrete — starting from the top floors and going down, instead of starting at the bottom, which is considered safer. “They were pouring concrete in the wrong sequence, and we believe that that is a major contributor to this collapse today,” he said at a briefing on Tuesday night.

Mr. LiMandri said that a neighbor called to complain on Saturday about after-hours work and that the department did not immediately follow up on the complaint. He said that what happened on Saturday and on Tuesday were “not connected,” and that investigators would sort through the accident site piece by piece to determine the cause.

Photo from Metro

We've heard this before

From CBS:

The influx of illegal apartments has become such a problem that the DOB has gone undercover, looking for and busting illegal apartments. The city agency has agents who set up sting operations—part of an ongoing enforcement action.

It’s start with a DOB agent reading between the lines, trying to find illegal apartments among online advertisements. She says they’re easy to spot.

“If it’s a really, really cheap apartment, they’re telling you it’s in a basement or an attic, anything like that,” the undercover agent says. “All utilities included—we really look for that. That’s a red flag for us.”

Once they find the target, they pose as renters and go out to confirm.

...since the program began investigators have issued violations in 86 percent of the apartments visited. With the number of violations, Limandri says they’re not stopping anytime soon.

But you can have those violations on file for years without paying and DOB won't follow up to make sure you corrected them.

Scarano decision upheld by court

From The Real Deal:

A state appeals court today has rejected architect Robert Scarano's appeal of a decision forbidding him from filing any building documents, including permit applications and construction plans, with the Department of Buildings.

"New Yorkers depend on licensed professionals to follow the law and ensure the quality of life of our neighborhoods is protected. Mr. Scarano betrayed that trust, and this decision sends a clear message that there are serious consequences for filing false documents in New York City," DOB Commissioner Robert LiMandri said in a statement.

The initial decision, made in March 2010, followed accusations that Scarano knowingly made false and misleading statements to the DOB on documents relating to buildings at 145 Snediker Avenue, 158 Freeman Street and 1037 Manhattan Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in order to have illegal or oversized buildings approved.

"While we find no support for some of the findings of the [Administrative Law Judge,]" the decision says, "we agree that the petitioner's actions in submitting misleading photographs, falsely certifying that all objections had been resolved, and claiming entitlement to extra floor area resulting from a nonexistent community facility are supported by substantial evidence and warrant the finding that DOB can no longer rely on him to submit honest paperwork."

LiMandri expects sabotage

From City Hall:

The city Buildings Department is bracing for turmoil at construction sites when dozens of collective bargaining agreements expire at the end of next month, Commissioner Robert LiMandri told a City Hall breakfast yesterday.

He said his department will be on high alert as the June 30 deadline nears, and is planning how to navigate picket lines and deal with deliberate destruction by disgruntled workers.

“That’s certainly planning for the worst, and if that happens we’ll have to do that,” said LiMandri, who noted his department has a strong relationship with the city’s district attorneys. “Sabotage is certainly, I’m sure, at the top of every construction manager’s mind, but make no mistake about it: this city is not going to tolerate that kind of behavior.”

The commissioner’s candid assessment came at a discussion hosted by Baruch College’s Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute and sponsored by the law firm Greenberg Traurig, during which he talked about the department’s challenges and successes since he took over in 2008.

Tensions between the city’s builders, contractors and unions have grown since last year. Developers say they need to cut costs 20 percent to restart the industry, and are asking for wage and benefit concessions as well as work-rule changes.

Construction workers say they have already sacrificed with temporary givebacks through project labor agreements, but have balked at making them permanent in new contracts.

Several industry workers grilled LiMandri about what they called widespread problems with unqualified and bureaucratic plan examiners, who are responsible for reviewing and approving construction plans.

When is it OSHA and when is it DOB?

You know things are bad out there when Staten Island writes to you...

"How much did Commissioner LiMandri spend on fliers, written in a multitude of languages, advising workers to wear safety harnesses? Check out how important this is to the Dept of Buildings - they don't even bother to send an inspector out! Turns out that unless someone falls ON THE SIDEWALK (which means it's not a building site-related incident?) the DoB can take as long as ten days to follow up on a complaint." - Jacob Riis

NYC Department of Buildings

Overview for Complaint #:5089668 = RESOLVED

Complaint at:	80 GRANITE AVENUE		BIN: 5026644		Borough: STATEN ISLAND		ZIP: 10303
Re:	UNSAFE SITE, WORKERS NOT USING PROPER HARNESS, AND ALSOPASSING BEAMS, BY HAND IN SECOND STORY OF BUILDING (COMMERICAL BLDG)NEED AN INSPECTOR ASAP

Category Code:	91 SITE CONDITIONS ENDANGERING WORKERS
DOB District:	N/A
Special District:
Assigned To:	STATEN ISLAND BOROUGH OFFICE	Priority: A

Received:	02/17/2011 09:02		Block: 1157	Lot: 31		Community Board: 501
Owner:	MAYZEL, KLEMENT

Last Inspection:02/17/2011 - - BY BADGE # 0801 Disposition:02/17/2011 - I1 - COMPLAINT UNSUBSTANTIATED BASED ON DEPARTMENT RECORDS
Comments:OSHA JURISDICTION

Robert Scarano profiled by the Times

From the NY Times:

Some wonder, if what he was doing was so blatantly illegal, why Scarano met with approval for so long. Robert LiMandri, the commissioner of the buildings department, said he had “no information that indicates that there was any sort of corruption” and that no employees were disciplined. Rather, he contended, the department was overwhelmed by a “frenzy” of building activity, and it relied on Scarano’s representations, which were often voluminous and confusing. At the time, the department had no way to punish him for lying. In 2007, though, state legislators, inspired by complaints about scofflaw architects, passed a law that allowed tough sanctions. “We really needed this stick to be able to say to people, look, there are no more cat-and-mouse games,” LiMandri said. The department created a new Special Enforcement Unit, focusing on Scarano as an initial target.

The city brought a new prosecution, a complicated case involving adjoining properties and supposed double counting of zoning rights, but then, in late 2008, a seemingly unambiguous bit of trickery dropped into investigators’ laps. Scarano was seeking a routine approval for a commercial building, which could not be occupied as long as an electrical pole was sitting in the middle of a new driveway. The architect submitted a curious photo of the building: shot from an off-center angle, it gave the appearance that the driveway was no longer obstructed. When the city sent an inspector to the site, he saw the pole hadn’t actually been moved.